Our Song
by AllynDupe
Summary: Cloud and Tifa, young teenagers who had grown up together in their countryside town of Nibelhiem, sneak out at midnight to see one another. Their goal is to visit their special place, somewhere only they could go to feel it's magical pull. Lyrics c T.S


Tiny prickles of pain shot through my fingers like individual stabs from a needle as I wrestled with the screen in my bedroom window as if it was a massive intruder. The metal that bordered the outside like the frame on a picture was often stubborn and usually rather painful to grip with my hands, but I was doing it anyway. I always ended up doing it anyway, for one reason or another.

The one lamp that remained on in my bedroom gave the room a dim, eerie illumination across all the objects that filled my space. Menacing shadows that looked like threatening monsters with claws and razor teeth, crawled up the walls like wild vines.

I jumped a little, noticing my own shadow dancing on my bed behind me; a black reflection of my true self. Smiling to myself at the sudden and rediculous fright, I continued to grip the screen, regardless of how my fingers and palms ached and groaned at me to stop.

_I was riding shotgun,  
With my hair undone,  
In the front seat of his car.  
He's got a one-hand feel on the steering wheel,  
The other on my heart._

Finally, after what seemed like an hour of failing attempts, the screen popped almost noiselessly out of the large bedroom window, and the view ahead of me was the one that always sat in front of my home. Trees, bushes, dirt roads and adventure...All waiting for my curious shoes to trample through them.

I took a glance around my silent and empty bedroom, checking to make sure the lock on my door was turned in the right position. I shifted my eyes easily to my unoccupied bed, where a pillow slept soundlessly under the covers; where I should have been. Deciding that everything was in order the way it needed to be for my great escape, I stuck one leg through the large first floor window, my sneaker quickly and simply touching the soft, plush ground below. After the second shoe hit base with the earth, I slipped my body through the screenless opening with ease.

I started to walk away, disinterested in the fact that my room could easily become invaded and overcome by mosquitos, black flies, and various other types of pests while I was away. For some reason it didn't matter; I was going to see ihim/i again.

No matter of spiders or flies or bugs could amount to or take over the pleasure it was to be in his presence; hence the reason I didn't peek an eye backwards; turn my feet around or even give returning to place the screen back in, any thought what so ever. I was on my way.

The heard one of the floorboards let out an almost deafening creak, and I flinched slightly, pulling tight to the wall in my skinny hallway, and breathing out heavily.

I felt somehow as if I was a theif of some sort; sneaking around a house at night, almost shuddering and panicing at every floor board creak, taking slow and silent steps to avoid detectable movement...Only difference was, I was sneaking around my own house at night.

I wasn't a theif, I was just trying to get out of the house at twelve AM, without my Mother catching me, or waking up. It was often a hard task, and I suppose you could generalize that difficulty with the high risk of the route I always took.

It was a road lined with barbed wire; my mother's bedroom. There was a few reasons why that certain path less traveled by, was my choice. The most important one being, walking down the upstairs hall from my bedroom to her room, made a lot less noise that walking down my stairs that screamed and wailed with every board you stepped on. Another was, that I could get down to the ground from the balcony in her room, for there was a beautiful white trellis that extended all the way down. It was easy to climb, like an extremely convinent ladder.

_I look around, turn the radio down,  
He says, baby is something wrong?  
I say nothing, I was just thinking,  
How we don't have a song.  
And he says..._

I took several more slow steps into my Mother's chilly bedroom, that smelled of laundry detergent and fresh, summer air - I inhaled it deeply, as I continued to take slow motion across the floor, towards the screen door I could see, that would open my world into the balcony's. I could easily pick up on my Mother's heavy breaths, something that I had learned from many sneaking out experiences, meant she was deep in slumber, like a small child after a long day of play.

I reached the screen door, the moon's pale light shining down on my body, making me seem like I was glowing with a mediocre aura. I glanced up at the giant, golden cat's eye that sat in the sky high above me, praying that I wouldn't wake my Mother as I slowly unlatched the screen door. After the mild and ill fallen squeak had passed, I pressed one clammy hand against the rough, sketchy surface of the screen lining that rested on the glass.

The door was pushed open, and I closed it with just as much cation and hesitance radiating from my actions. Finally, feeling a little more free, finally releasing a breath I had hitched in for what seemed like years, I let my sneakers take quicker, yet still soundless steps across the rough looking, wooden balcony. I reached the edge and climbed up over the rail, leading my dangling feet to the holes in the wooden trellis; my helping hand to the ground.

My heart crawled all the way into my throat for the first few seconds that I stood, my feet close to dangling several feet above ground. However, as I took tedious steps, I was able to swallow my heart again and return it to my chest, little by little.

When my feet finally made much needed contact with the dirt and grass below, only then did my heart reconnect itself in my chest, and start beating, as it had been before. Because I was going to be meeting iher/i again. My feet rolled through tall grass, dirt and various sizes of rocks as I made my way to her, the summer air, chilled to perfection like the inside of a refridgerator, making the night seem a little too perfect.

I continued to make my way across the landscape I was much too familliar with, towards his house, where I knew he would be walking from to meet me. Medium speed, blank expression, and worn out sneakers.

_Our song is the slamming screen door,  
Sneaking out late, tapping on your window.  
When we're on the phone, and you talk real slow.  
'Cause it's late and your Mama don't know. _

Long grass like thin, green fingers tickled across my bare calves, and I experienced the unappealing, yet extremely familliar sensation of stepping through a spider web. The thin, transparent and otherwise beautiful strands of spider thread, breaking upon contact with my legs. After the tall grass came to an abrupt stop and I saw his house looming in the distance like a dull, black sillouette against the starry night sky, I wiped my legs with my mildly fridgid fingers. I could feel thin tingles making their way up the back of my leg, and knowing it was the spider that owned the know wrecked web, I ran my hand quickly across my skin, knocking away any trace of the tiny, innocent creature that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally looking up from where my eyes were planted in the earth like hazel colored flowers, I saw him approaching me, the way he did any other night we did this together. His blonde, spikey hair, messy. A casual, comfortable outfit on - On this night it happened to be a white tanktop and grass-stained blue jeans. His movements were slow, comprehensive and mild; just like he. I made my way over to him, feeling my heart swell and expand with eagerness, excitement and happiness.

I could see her running my way, her long, dark brown hair that reminded me of autmn, swishing behind her. She wore jean shorts and black t-shirt, her slender and powerful legs taking fast, swift strides towards my body.

Before I knew it, her arms were about my neck, encircling it like a romantic wreath. "Hey, Tifa." I said, wrapping my arms around her shapely hips, our bodies slightly touching. I could feel goosebumps line my skin like mesh, as a chilly, late night breeze whipped around our bodies, fast like the crack of a whip.

"Hey.." Came her brisk voice, that was calm and serene like waves barely rippling the surface of water. Our embrace ended, and she looked to me; her lips flipping into a tiny, clear smile. She was fifteen years old, but sometimes I believed she had a smile much more mature and beautiful to match that label. The smile of a Goddess, or an angel.

We started to walk, and I noticed her skin was cold, like after making snowballs with your bare hands, when her hand latched onto mine, tackling it as if it had it's own gentle and unpredictable mind.

_Our song is the way you laugh,  
The first date man, I didn't kiss her and I should have.  
And when I got home, before I said amen,  
Asking God if he could play it again._

His hand was somehow always warm, and it seemed to defrost the layer of thin ice that had all but embraced my flesh, leaving it's frosty fingerprints behind.

We started walking together, back towards where I had decended from. However, my home was not out goal; for our goal was much more appealing. Our goal was a world only he and I knew, our goal was a place where the stars seemed to line perfectly as they winked at us from a distance, and where the moon was our sun. Our goal was a place only we would go, only we knew about, and that we created with steady hands and vivid, lush imaginations.

My house rounded the corner and we passed it casually, heading towards the sharp looking evergreen trees in front of my home, that were blacker that the night sky, and even more sinister than the shadows that had crawled up my wall previously. I eyed them like they were suspicious strangers, when really I had been viewing them, walking around them and touching their rough needles my whole life.

Making our way through more tall grass that seemed thicker than ocean water, we headed towards the one pathway in the trees that we knew almost better than our front doors; the one that was never jumbled with twigs or anything of the sort; we had created this path with our small, adventurous minds and filthy hands as children...And had been making the clear yet tangled trek ever since. And only could our special place grow.

Now I had grown to believe it was a place of more rest and beauty than heaven; it was a place more enjoyable and fun than the beach. It was more warm and comfortable than being in your own bed, tucked under the covers on a freezing winter night, and it was more bountiiful than the biggest berry bush. It was everything every day life lacked, and more. It was remarkable.

"I love being able to do this with you, Cloud." I looked over at my closest friend in the world that I had known since I was four years old, and he, five and smiled wholely; nothing at all missing from my expression. A full puzzle, an untouched symbol of happiness and attraction. "I bet no-one else has ever been to our place."

I saw a tiny smile beginning to cower away from his mind and onto his lips, and Cloud looked at me for a brief second. "Yeah, we've never told anybody the way...Have we?"

I let my mind run for a second, for it was a thought provoking question. "No...No, I don't think so." The cold, midnight air seemed to swallow us as the trees came into clearer view and we could no longer feel the relentless and almost numbing tingling tickle of the tall grass.

_I was walking up the front porch steps,  
After everything that day,  
Had gone all wrong or been trampled on,  
And lost and thrown away._

Cloud led the way, as he always had ever since we were little, and I walked behind him carefully, our hands detatched, my eyes scraping the dirt under our feet, watching that I didn't trip on any roots.

"I wish we could do this every night." I mused, my heart singing gently underneath my chest. I enjoyed being outside with Cloud in the middle of a gorgeous night, more than I enjoyed anything else. Not reading, nor taking a walk, or picking berries, or anything else I liked doing with my time could overcome the joy I felt on these nights. "I sometimes wish we could - "

"I sometimes wish we could - "

I heard a stumble, and a shuffling noise. I glanced backwards quickly, startled nearly out of my skin by the noise and Tifa's abrupt sentance chop. I was afraid of what had happened, my heart struck cold and still as if it was hit with a large, blunt object.

"Tifa?"

I saw her on the ground, and I immidiately leaned down to help her to her feet once again. "Are you okay..?"

"Yeah..." She said, her voice sounding like steam rising from a hot pot on the stove. Stinging and painful. Much of her weight was supported on my shoulder, and I glanced down at her while she tried to get herself situated.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, putting one of my strong arms around her waist to help support her, like a fleshy, caring crutch. I looked down, only to barely see what could have been a pool of blood on her right knee, in the dim light provided by the mighty stars above my head. Concerned, I increased the support I was reaching out to her by taking her arm around my shoulders and holding her in a standing position that required barely any effort from her.

"Yeah, my knee..." Her voice trailed off, although it still retained it's usual strength and solidity. "I think I might have twisted my ankle, too." Her voice sounded rather deflated, the static she had once been displaying with beautiful smiles, positive words and an upbeat tone of voice; had run away to take cover the moment she had begun to trip. It seemed as if it was gone too soon.

_Got to the hallway,  
Well on my way, to my loving bed.  
I almost didn't notice all the roses,  
And the note that said..._

"Well, let's keep going. I'll help you walk." I said simply, starting to take calm, steady steps, watching catiously for roots and rocks I could stumble on. My feet were slowy accompained by her unsteady, shaken steps, and we headed onwards. "You really need to watch those roots, Tifa."

Tifa laughed a little briskly, her voice sounding like it was stretched to it's limits. She spoke louder and more quickly, the pain vividly showing from her sudden tumble. "I think it might have been a rock this time.." Each limp that she took seemed to take tremendous effort, shaking and shuddering her usually powerful will and might from her body; sucking it away like an invisible vacuum.

As we walked on and I knew we were nearing our destination, I got a strange sense of deja-vu that overcame me like a gust of wind or an ocean wave. Smiling a little to myself, I continued to do my best to help her walk. She was unsteady like a nervous tightrope walker, and I stopped a second, to tighten my grip around her body before we pressed on. "You do this too much." I smirked, wanting to open my lips and laugh a little.

"Well, this is the first time it's happened all summer." Up rose her defences, her voice growing a hard shell that was unbreakble by any means; tougher than any metal or steel. "I fell down more when I was little." She protested, still hobbling along with severe difficulty, attached to my body.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I remember when you sprained your ankle here." I started, seeing the most familliar place in my lifetime beginning to roll into view, like the coming tide. "I asked you if you wanted to go home, because you were crying and everything...But you wanted me to take you here." We slowly but surely entered our favortie place in the universe through the veil of hanging evergreen branches, like a sweet smelling curtain, only nature could provide.

"Yeah, and you took me here." I continued to speak to him, regardless of the pain that burned and itched in my knee, and the pressure that seemed to pull apart the bones in my ankle...As if trying to prevent me from taking one complete step.

I took my eyes from the dirt and let them wash over the beautiful, sight before me. It was simple, yet so complex...

_Our song is the slamming screen door,  
Sneaking out late, tapping on your window.  
When we're on the phone, and you talk real slow,  
'Cause it's late and your Mama don't know._

I saw the monsterous oak tree sitting in the middle of a small clearing, it's branches extending like many comforting hands. On the largest, lowest branch, hung a thick and strong looking rope, that reminded me of my father's burly arms. Tough and dependable. At the end of that rope hung a large tire, securely fastened there by many knots and twists. Simple minded boards were nailed to the tree trunk behind my beloved tire swing, serving as simple minded steps and bringing entrance into the beautiful world among the trees many, complicated and tangled branches. We had never understood why an oaktree of such grace and size had been growing in the middle of the forest for so much time; which is why we wanted it to be ours. The one oaktree surrounded by it's many evergreen brothers, was ours to keep, cherish and grow upon.

We approached the motionless tire that appeared to be stuck in time, a victim of the shelter of the trees, the passage that strong wind or even mild breezes were denied and unwelcome. My feet suddenly left the ground and I felt the pain swelling inside my ankle disperse; vanishing like wiping away a smudge on a window. Cloud had lifted me from my uncomfortable standing position, laying me in the gentle and familliar hold of the tire swing. It seemed to have a motherly embrace; keeping me safe from any dilemma my mind was facing.

Once I was secure in the home made swing that was positoned by Cloud himself, I stuck my head out the opposite side, breathing in the fresh smell of pine. Everything always seemed at peace when we where in our place.

Cloud took to the side of the tree behind me, and took none-too-hesitant steps up the boards we had nailed into position so amaturely, more than used to letting them take him to soaring heights. However, he didn't venture immensly upward on this particular night; instead he brought his body to the very branch I was swinging from, and he sat down, leaning his body against the tree's large, broad trunk that contained many messages from us etched in it's bark. I heard a slow sigh from him, something that told me he was comfortable and relaxed, like a parrot in it's favorite perch.

"...And when you helped me hop on one foot until we got here, you picked me up and put me in the tire swing..." I let my voice sail out of my lungs, cracking up the soft, almost delicate silence into thousands of seemingly unending peices. "And then you climbed into the tree, and sat on the lowest branch." I smiled, suddenly feeling de-ja vu, thick like fog covered the land and shrouding my thoughts. I was amused at how similar the events in our lives could play out.

_Our song is the way you laugh,  
The first date, man I didn't kiss her and I should have.  
And when I got home, before I said amen,  
Asking God f he could play it again. _

"Yeah. I know. It's just the best way to be." Cloud replied, his monotone voice a drastic change to my own perky one. "I love it here. And the best part is up there," I couldn't see him, only hear his husky voice, and yet I knew he was pointing to the sky. And I also felt his reasoning, radiating from his heart almost like visible heat waves.

The sky certainly was the best part. The evergreen trees that acted as walls for our personal hideout, left a giant open spot that led to the stars as they circled the clearing. The velvet looking, violet sky was often breath taking from such a remote area, and the stars stared back down at us kindly. The moon's almost yellow-grey complexion left little beams of pretty light falling to the ground, like our own, personal shooting stars. The stars twinkled, glittered and sparkled above, looking close enough to touch and breath. There was nothing more magical than that one opening to heaven, and I knew that was an opinion we both shared.

I sighed, feeling the pulse in my ankle beginning to invade my mind. Trying to ignore it had certainly worked for a while, but was beginning to haunt me once again; like an unsettled spirit. My thoughts began to race like out of control horses, threatening to crash into one another brutally. "Cloud?"

"Cloud?"

I could hear Tifa's voice below me, as steady as the air coming in and out of my lungs. I could detect question quivering in the way she said my name, and I was curious about what kind of question she had to ask, at such a contented and pleasant time. "..Yeah?"

"Do you think..." Her voice was hesitant and her sentance delayed for a few seconds. I waited, listening to the almost eerie noiselessness of the forest that surrounded me like a whole new village. One full of secrets and mystery, waiting to be discovered. "Do you think we'll always be able to be like this?" Finally, she continued, her words sounding tender and gentle in the projection of the quiet.

"Like what?" I felt a little confused at first, beginning to pick at a knothole next to my legs, embedded in the sturdy branch like a disease. "...You mean, able to spend time together out here, and stuff?"

_I've heard every album,  
Listened to the radio.  
Waited for something to come along,  
That was as good as our song._

"Well, yeah...I mean, you don't think things will change, do you? Like, we'll always be able to be together, and come here...Won't we?" Her words were still unshaken and the way she spoke to me was powerful; I had always thought it was. She had a beautiful voice, like the sound of bells ringing through the air; loud and strong enough to be heard, but a peaceful and graceful sound.

"I think..." I really had to think about the thoughts she was feeding into the open, because they were extremely controversial and a little bit confusing...If I tripped the wrong fuse, the almost perfect night we were experiencing, tasting and breathing - Could be simply crushed under the weight of misconception. "I think everything will end up going exactly the way it's supposed to go, and if it goes the way I think it should..." Again, I paused, staring into the opening in the sky as if it was the only place in the world where all the answers to every question would lay in soltitude. "If it goes the way it should, I think we'll be sitting here, years from now. Looking at the same stuff. Don't worry about it, Tifa." I knew my voice sounded emotionless, I just hoped she could see the strong and meanful colors of the painting hiding behind the tasteless, grey print.

"...Thanks, Cloud. I hope it turns out that way, too." I could tell, easily by the tone of her voice that one of her cheerful smiles was overcoming her features.

A silence insued that was not threatening at all; it was in fact extremely calming and blissful. It had become so quiet, that it was as if I could have heard spirits whispering to me if they were present.

"Cloud, we should go home. It's probably close to one o'clock by now." Tifa spoke, her words floating from close to the base of the tree, all the way to my height.

Quickly realizing how late it was, and struggled to find the first board step that would begin my journey to the ground. I took each step carefully on my way down, finally feeling as if I was learning from all the slips and falls I had done out of this tree in the past.

When I reached Tifa, I could see she was standing on her own, and using the tire for a little support. She looked a little better, and was giving off a more optimistic vibe than she had been earlier.

"Are you okay to walk?" I questioned, walking over a little closer to her, awaiting a response and she leaned down to her ankle and touched it with one of her hands.

_'Cause our song is the slamming screen door,  
Sneaking out late, tapping on his window.  
When we're on the phone, and he talks real slow,  
'Cause it's late and his Mama don't know. _

"Are you okay to walk?"

"Yeah, I think so. Well, mostly. I'll be okay." I replied to Cloud's concerned question, as I took my hand away from the rubbery texture of the tire. I took a few difficult steps forward, as Cloud began to walk by my side rather than way ahead of me like usual.

The path was still as dim and dark yet magnificent as usual, and having to take my time because of how my ankle pained me, made me realize even more how amazing the nature where I had grown up was.

The trees were behind us eventually, and I could see my house waiting for me in the near distance, it looked welcoming and soft. My bedroom lamp still burned on, and I could see it's dim power making my open window glow as if it was holy. Cloud and I made our way over to it, and he pulled himself through the clear opening first, and waited in my bedroom, so he could help me get inside myself, without damaging my knee or my ankle any further.

Once inside, I plopped down on my bed's plushy, almost cotton like comfortable surface, and examined my knee carefully as if it was under a microscope. I had certainly skinned it out badly, and there were a few tiny rock fragments jammed into the open, red and irritated looking wound; although it barely bled anymore. I listened to Cloud trying to jam the screen back into my window, and I smiled a little at all the clattering. I slowly and somehow rather easily removed the few slivers of rock, as much as it stung like a bee sting.

"I'm gonna go get some peroxide to clean this...And a bandaid. I'll be right back." I got up slowly, taking gentle and catious, almost hesitant steps towards my bedroom door. I began to swivel the lock in the other direction so I could depart.

"Alright. I'll fix your screen, and when you get back I'll leave through the front door." Came the introverted blonde's response, as monotonous as ever, and I departed my room and crept into the bathroom closeby.

As soon as I flicked on the light and closed the door, I let my weak feeling and shakey feet take the steps to the clean, white medicine cabinet and yanked it open. Inside, I saw various things. Painkillers, vitamins, ointment, and various kinds of liquids and pills. I noticed the peroxide in the large, dark blue bottle and I grabbed it without thought.

Placing it next to the sink and leaning down to have a look inside the cabinet underneath the sink, and grabbed the open bandaid box and layed it up next to the bottle of peroxide, casually. I also took a cotton ball or two from the same cabinet, before shutting the doors and standing up to my full posture again.

_Our song is the way he laughs,  
The first date man, I didn't kiss him and I should have.  
And when I got home, before I said amen,  
Asking God if he could play it again.  
Play it again. _

I unscrewed the lid, and held the cotton ball to the newly reveiled opening, tipping the peroxide downwards so it could soak the wooly material the way the ocean soaks the shore, with each relentless strike. Lifting my leg up slightly, I fearlessly pressed the close to dripping wet peice of cotton to my open wound.

The liquid of cleanliness and healing seemed to be seeping through my cut and into my blood, burning it with an ugly disposition. Scortching it, the way a fire does your face and eyes when you get too close.

Flinching slightly, I eventually pulled it away, and threw it towards the garbage can close by. It landed in directly; a perfect slam dunk. I reached into the bandaid box, ripping two out. I tore the packages away like some kind of ravenous creature, and quickly applied them both to my sensitive knee, using two so the entire painful crater could be covered.

Feeling a little better, I tossed my hand carelessly at the switch and flicked it off, before turning and heading towards my room, noticing the pain in my ankle had ultimately begun to decrease as well.

As I entered my room, I saw Cloud...Only not the way I had expected. The screen was returned to it's original state, covering the window and sheltering my room from outside intruders. And Cloud was lying on one side of my bed, and had pulled my pillow up from where I had it stashed, tucked in as a bad attempt of a disguise for myself.

His eyes were closed serenely; he seriously looked like an angel, or a child when he slept. So innocent it was a little hard to believe. I could see he left room for me on the side closest to the wall, and I felt a warm, welcoming feeling rush my heart and catch it off guard.

I turned around, and shut the door behind me easily, hearing the pleasant sounding 'click.' I let my feet carry me across the room, so I could press the one simple button on the lamp that removed the light from the world, until I needed it again.

Fumbling over to my bed in the pitch darkness, I felt like a blind woman, or as if every light in the universe had suddenly disappeared. Finally managing to crawl in, regardless of all the blindfolded madness of crossing the room, and found myself next to Cloud's warm, slumbering body. I rested my head on his chest, and his breathing slowly brought it up and down, and I could feel it gently rocking me into dreamland, almost the way the tire swing sometimes would.

Just before my conciousness departed my body until the morning light lit the candle to my soul in the morning, I felt Cloud's warm hand rest on my back. I felt secure, warm and comfortable...Almost as if nothing could touch me or harm me when I was laying beside such a remarkable person. Like he had a glow that fended off anything and everything.

And just as the last light in my brain was dimming, I made a decision. It wasn't our special place that made me feel so happy and wonderful, it was Cloud Strife. It would always be Cloud, and it had always been. And that's what made me believe things would never change, just so long as he was there to look out for me.

Nothing at all could compare...It was irrisistable, it was warm, it was beautiful and strange and unpredictable...And I believed it was love, something well known, but often misunderstood.

_I was riding shotgun,  
With my hair undone,  
In the front seat of his car.  
I grabbed a pen and an old napkin,  
And I wrote down our song..._

**_Our Song // End_**


End file.
